Carl von Effner, also Karl von Effner, Carl Joseph von Effner and Carl Effner (the younger) (10 February 1831 – 22 October 1884) was gardener to the
Bavarian court, later Königlich Bayerischer Hofgärtendirektor ("Royal Bavarian Court Director of Gardens"), and
landscape gardener.
Family background
Carl von Effner was descended from the Effner family, who for many years were gardeners in the service of the Bavarian royal court. He was great-grandson of the distinguished architect and builder
Joseph Effner (1687–1745)
Life
He was born as Carl Effner in
Munich, son of Carl Effner (the elder) (1791–1870), Senior Bavarian Court Gardener. After a gardening apprenticeship he made various study visits to
Vienna,
Paris,
England and
Sanssouci, where he also became familiar with the "mixed style" of garden design[1] of the well-known
Prussian landscape architect
Peter Joseph Lenné involving the formation of regular areas of formal ornamental garden within wider areas of landscaped garden, which enjoyed a revival in the mid-19th century.
In 1857
Maximilian II recalled him to Munich and at the early age of 26 appointed him Court Gardener. From 1860 to 1865 he was active as representative of the Senior Court Gardener on the staff of the Obersthofmarschall. Maximilian made Effner responsible for the landscaping of the banks of the
Isar between
Haidhausen and
Bogenhausen (later known as the Maximiliansanlagen, or Maximilian Gardens) and for the garden element of the
Maximilianstrasse designed by
Friedrich Bürklein.
In 1868 Effner was appointed Head Court Gardener, and director of all Bavarian court gardens, by the Bavarian Regent
Ludwig II.
In 1870 Ludwig II, by that time king, made Effner Royal Inspector of Court Gardens and in 1873 Royal Director of Court Gardens. He now designed the gardens for Ludwig II's castles,
Neues Schloss, Herrenchiemsee, and
Linderhof.
He also designed numerous private gardens in Bavaria.
He sometimes worked on the earlier gardens with his father.
In 1877 he was raised to the nobility (as von Effner). He died in Munich on 22 October 1884 and is buried in the
Alter Südfriedhof (grave 13-1-34).
Park at the Midgard-Haus in
Tutzing (formerly known as the Tutzinger Seepark, now the Bagnères-de-Bigarre-Park) for the writer
Maximilian Schmidt, presumably 1864-1870
Park of the
Neues Schloss, Herrenchiemsee, plans of 1875/76, with an unfinished later remodelling; completed in a simplified form by his successor
Jakob Möhl, in 1888
Manfred Stephan: Biographien europäischer Gartenkünstler: Carl von Effner. Gartenkünstler im Dienste der Krone und des Bürgertums, in: Garten+Landschaft, vol. 5, 1998, pp. 347–355
Lorenz Maier: Effner, Carl Joseph von. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls bayerische Biographie. Pustet, Regensburg 1983,
ISBN3-7917-0792-2, p. 165 (
online on the website of the Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg). (in German)
Carl von Effner: Bericht und Vorschläge über die Promenaden und Anlagen von Basel und Umgebung. Basel: J. J. Mast, 1860.